Category Archives: Product Reviews

Screenshot from my Watch of me using Watch to take picture from iPhone. Whoa. Meta.

Buying the Apple Watch on day one for me was the precise opposite of buying an iPad – I had absolutely no idea why I was buying it, but figured I’d either like/love it, or return/eBay it – in other words, no downside. One week into using it, and I’m well into Like, but not yet at Love. I’d hold the core Watch functionality at 50% accountable for the Like, 30% for Apple apps, and 20% for third-party apps. Or, as I see it, as long as better apps come along, which is inevitable, I may soon Love the Watch. And astute readers know that I must end this post with “only time will tell” – apologies.

If you want to learn more about the Watch, or read countless “must-get” App lists, I’m sure you can figure that out. I’m focusing specifically on my personal impressions and experiences. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. Having the Watch is relaxing.

I put this first, as it’s the most important thing about the Watch. My iPhone now spends about 90% more time in my pocket, I don’t leave it out on tables or my desk, it’s just away. I can deal with at least 2/3 of my notifications through my Watch, and they go away. Further, I feel less urges to glance at my phone – ever. Considering how much I find notifications distracting and frustrating, yet utterly necessary in modern life, the Watch is a clear win on the claim of helping you deal with the basics of modern interruptions.

2. There are some useless apps:

For non-Apple Watch owners, know this: 100% of your regular Notifications will appear on the Watch. So much like how annoying apps that just show you the content of a blog can be, Watch apps that just show you something you’d get via Notifications are pretty silly at this point. Perhaps my feelings on this will change with more than a week’s exposure, but I’m seeing a lot of things I don’t need to see.

3. There is a lot more iPhone co-dependency than I thought/expected

The Watch doesn’t talk to any other of my Apple products – so notifications from iPad/Macbook don’t hit my wrist. It’s specifically an extension of the iPhone. Further, there are many Watch apps, including those from Apple, which require significant phone-based interactions to work. This isn’t a good/bad thing, but it’s an important mindset.

Letterpad game

Post-Shazaming a song

4. Prediction: App Management is going to become a problem

Installing Apps happens via your iPhone, where you manually, on an app-by-app basis, “install” them to your Watch. It’s seamless and elegant. Or it is as long as I still have less than 50 apps with Watch functionality. When this hits 100+ apps, it’s going to be a nuisance. Ditto for “navigating” apps on the Watch.

Installing an app on the Watch

5. The Digital Crown is awesome, intuitive, and I love using it. And I forget about it a lot.

It’s smooth and elegant, and whenever I remember to use it, it works exactly as I’d hope/expect it to. But most of the time I forget it’s there, as I’m soooo used to everything being touch-based. Not that it should work different on the Watch, but it’s a “Getting Used to it” curve.

6. Some very clever app examples.

There really aren’t a ton at this stage, but the “promise of what’s to come” is already clearly in the air. Here are my standouts:

a) Uber

Perfect use of Watch. Either Summon your Uber, or see Current Status of Uber. A+ implementation.

Having the Watch vibrate right when I need to turn is amazingly helpful. Possibly the most useful specific feature on the Watch overall.

d) Charles Schwab

Pulls in my portfolio with quick at-a-glance info. Not particularly better than Apple’s own Stocks, but it’s my personal/actual portfolio, so no manual changes necessary.

This is Apple Stocks – also nicely done, just showing for comparison.

“Force Push” in Schwab app enables a 1-click to start a trade, which you complete on the Phone. Perfect use of “get a notification, trigger an action.”

e) Transit

Real-time, geo-located public transportation. So much better than pulling out the iPhone for same info.

Also able to pull up most recently booked trip on your iPhone

One caveat re Transit – I think it’s just a bug, but I’ve found it just doesn’t always update properly, and sometimes I’m at the office and it still thinks I’m at home.

f) SPG

Upcoming Reservations, Points/Status, and keyless entry!

g) Yelp

Find restaurants near you in seconds. And it works. And they keep it simple.

h) Circa

Candidly I don’t use Circa as much as Zite for my news reader, but their integration of recent headlines is perfectly done. Haven’t tried Flipboard yet.

i) Mailchimp

I really like the at-a-glance look at email campaign statuses. Another example of a non-ambitious, useful little app. That said, I doubt I’ll actually use it much, as I rarely just want to look at campaigns from such a high-level.

j) Wunderlist

If you are already a Wunderlist user, their Watch extension works exactly right. Quick glances, ability to mark things done, etc.

7. There’s also a lot of “still waiting for the a-ha moment” apps.

I have to imagine as an app developer with no prior history of the Watch that it’s a very difficult thing to have projected the how of people using it. So I think there’s a lot of “1.0 efforts” that will get better over time, but for now leave me a little “huh?”

Also, I think there’s a lot of apps that just didn’t need full extensions to the Watch, where a basic Push Notification does the job. Some examples:

a) Calm

So it’s like the built-in timer, but with nicer background? Am I supposed to stare at this? Because if so, I’m not feeling Calmer…

b) Mint

Granted I haven’t seen any real improvements to Mint since their acquisition, but this is a real throwaway. Poorly implemented, confusing to set up, and questionable value proposition. Would be better as simple push notifications.

c) Apple Store

Haven’t yet figured out why I need this app. Maybe I just don’t buy enough products?

d) Starbucks

Maybe when any Starbucks actually put Apple Pay terminals in place I’ll love this, but until then, it’s pretty useless.

e) Twitter

Twitter seems to make a lot of people’s “top Apps for Watch” list. For me it’s a pretty mediocre experience, with hard-to-read individual Tweets (often cut off before 140 characters), impossible to Tweet usefully (no links, hashtags, @replies, etc). Twitter on Watch seems like just a bridge too far for an already difficult-to-use Twitter experience.

f) Skype

I honestly don’t know what I was/should’ve been expecting here, but Skype on your Watch without even support for audio-only calls is pretty weak.

There’s oodles more, including some native apps, that could do a lot better, but again, 1.0.

8. Siri is making a lot more sense, and it’s working really well.

I’ve always enjoyed Siri, even as a fairly infrequent user, I thought it was a great foray into trying to make computing more invisible. On the Watch, though, I use it a lot, and find it works better than I expect – particularly for texting folks.

9. Evernote and Uber are the kind of apps that will lead to Love

Evernote on my wrist is nice for quickly searching for important info. But it’s much much cooler as a record a memo feature. My only wish would be recording audio memos – something I’m shocked isn’t default functionality between the Watch and iPhone.

Uber, however, may be the most perfectly designed Watch app out there. Launch the app, and within a few seconds the familiar “get an Uber” button appears. Perfect, as I don’t care about my Profile or Invite a Friend or the few other things Uber can do in the iPhone app. Then, with an Uber en route, I get the visible countdown and map/status until the driver’s arrived. Them, while driving, I see the map of where we’re going. It’s just perfectly done.

10. Photos is far more compelling than I’d have projected

I was pretty skeptical of any use of Photos on the Watch – considering how small they are. But I really enjoy having my Favorites album synched – it’s visually very attractive, a great reminder of using the Digital Crown, and a nice/comfortable feeling.

11. Force Touch is a great experience concept.

Your fingers have a tremendous amount of nerve endings and are incredibly sensitive “devices”. So having the “push a little harder to cause an action” is welcome, easy, and intuitive, and I’d hope to see it come to other touch-input products in the near-term.

12. I’m more impressed with battery life than I was expecting

I find I only need to charge it every other night – which, as a non-Watch-owning friend pointed out to me is quite frequent from a watch perspective. But considering the expectations were set around charging it nightly, I’m pretty happy so far.

13. The Remote and Navigation are the best apps from Apple

Beyond basic notifications, the apps I use the most proactively are Remote and Nav. For Remote, it just works really well, and I frequently misplace my Apple TV remote as it is. For Nav, the physical reinforcement of “turn soon” works great in areas where you really need your GPS – especially those “do I turn here or the next block???” moments.

14. I haven’t gotten my head around Activity yet

I like getting told to stand up once an hour – and generally I’m doing whatever it tells me to. And I like seeing the steps, and calorie count, etc. I don’t know if it does (or doesn’t) motivate me, and I don’t trust the accuracy (not that I distrust the effort/intent, just that I doubt all fitness tracking at present). Maybe I just don’t care much about quantified self – I feel pretty good with unquantified me.

15. I want more extension-of-my-iPhone functionality

My Watch should tell me when my iPhone is low on power or fully charged, and should give me the option to show iPhone battery life in the Watch Face. Ditto for cell signal/wifi connection. In both cases (power/network), these are essential pieces of information for actually using my Watch, and should be available at a glance.

16. Want. More. Faces.

17. The Watch could be a bit smarter.

It’s super-easy to add Timer or Stopwatch to the Faces. But if I don’t have it on, and I do have a timer going, shouldn’t this be a “trumping” level of visibility? I really like using timers in general (17 minutes of intermission between periods), but feel this should be perennially visible when active.

18. The Watch-to-Watch functionality is cool, but too hard to get using.

There’s literally no way for me to determine which of my contacts has a Watch, which really tears apart the concept of how cool the “send a gesture/tap” to a friend features are (and they are cool). Shouldn’t something in my iCloud ecosystem help me figure out who these potentially wonderful people are, and even where?

19. No more Phantom Ringing Upper Thigh

I’ve stated several times how calming the Watch is – but one especially pleasant side effect is I never “wonder” if I got a notification anymore. Phantom Wrist doesn’t appear to be a thing, and I already have stopped expecting it elsewhere.

20. Phone calls sound surprisingly good

Not sure where the mic is on it (and frankly, I don’t care), but I’ve had a few calls on it without the other party even thinking they were on speakerphone, let along Dick Tracy style. I’ve also noticed that if I take calls on it in windy environments, it actually outperforms the iPhone for avoiding wind tunnel conversation effect.21. It’s not 100% calibrated

I definitely find times when I “pull up” the Watch, only to see a blank screen. And even a shake or two might still leave it blank. Further, sometimes I just have my arm at an angle and the Watch seems to think I’ve “noticed” a notification. I assume this will improve over time.

22. I don’t feel as lame as I’d think using the Watch

Whether it’s taking a call, replying to a quick text, or looking at a notification, it feels much more natural than I’d expect. That said, I’ve caught myself several times in the “I should really just pull out my iPhone” phase of things. Curious to see how this calibrates over time for me personally.

23. Others get very excited to see it.

Was at my bank a few days back, I think I sold 3-4 of them in the span of 2 minutes just by answering a text. There’s something that’s gotten people really excited here. Again, not sure how this plays out in the long term.

24. I want more in-iOs integration

On my iPhone, a calendar location is instantly linked to launching Maps. Not true on Watch – but I don’t see why not. When I scan an email on my Watch, all links have been stripped. Why not just give me the chance to pull it up in Safari on my iPhone, I can look at it later. It could even go into Reading List automatically. There’s a lot of these little “in between” moments that I think could be improved over time.

25. It’s still a keeper

I can’t project 3 months out, once the fascination has worn off. But as of now, I have no desire to return it, I enjoy wearing it from morning til night (I don’t bring any “connected” products into my bedroom/sleepytime places), and I feel it’s a general improvement to digital living. Or is that living digitally?

Will I say the same in a year? Well, as forewarned many words ago – only time will tell.

We finally got around to downloading the iPad YouTube Kids app, now that more than half of my children can do things like spell words mostly correctly. And since there’s a bit of a family-wide addiction to Plants vs Zombies (1 and 2), they’ve been watching some gameplay video. Which got me realizing that a 6-year-old should not, at all, accidentally watch most of the results of “zombie” in a YouTube search. Enter YouTube Kids.

Here’s the family consensus of the strengths of the app:

YouTube Kids does an excellent job filtering out anything age-inappropriate. In fact I put a dedicated effort trying to “trick” it with any means possible, and I couldn’t find a video that I considered PG-13, scary/gory, adult-themed, etc. Searching for “zombies” pretty much only showed animated results:

On a very special Thomas the Train, …

and a search for “game of thrones” showed mostly music videos, Minecraft interpretations, and other “safe” versions:

Good thing nobody has any free time to do anything creative anymore…

Nothing else that I threw at it, from curse words to Skinemax-level “soft” words, came back with results. I even tried using horror movies, explosions, Michael Bay, etc:

I hear Night of the Living Pharmacist has some pretty creepy moments

Considering this is probably the single most important role the app has, I’d call it a win if your goal is to let your kids autonomously search for videos about topics that interest them.

And pretty much any search for “title of movie full movie” presented exactly that (including Frozen, Lion King, He-Man, etc):

The illegal copy never really bothered me anyway

Interestingly I couldn’t find PG-13 level movies, so Harry Potter was absent, though the Harry Potter Lego Version was all over the place.

Exploring and discovering learning/educational content actually is interesting. There’s tons of solid channels available, from LEGO to National Geographic and more.

I’d certainly call this an acceptable experience, but I’m nowhere near calling it Great. Which is disappointing, because I think it could, and should, be great. It unfortunately falls into the category of what we call “babysitter apps” – which are exactly the ones we try to avoid. We just prefer the apps that really engage our children, or that we want to use along with them. And from our perspective it falls short.

So here’s how I’d improve the YouTube Kids app:

Actually age-restrict Settings. Here’s what it looks like for “adult mode”:

That’s the same combination for my luggage!

While my 6yo can’t fully read, he’s got the numbers down already. Which makes the above beyond simple. Either enable a PIN-code, or have a math problem, but it needs to be a bit more serious than this.

Enable simultaneous search and playback. Just like in the main YouTube app, it should be easy to have a video playing while searching for the next one you want to watch / queue up.

Enable a queue / playlist. While search results become automatic playlists, as do channels, there’s no way to build your own simple playlist as you go. Maybe my 4yo couldn’t handle that, but the older ones certainly could.

Save a playlist. Would be great for music videos especially.

Mark/save favorite videos. If you are unfamiliar with children, there’s never ever been a video any child has ever watched only one time. More like 300 times.

Add Recently Watched/History. Per the above.

Subscribe to Channels. As you may have gathered by now, there’s virtually no personalization in the entire app. Why can’t I save my favorite channels, and have those appear on “my” home screen? The generic Home view is pretty useless after the kids have browsed it a few times. Also, being able to automatically find “latest episodes” from channels is a pretty core YouTube feature – one that the kids should get too.

Add “Show More Results” to search. Because otherwise you can never, ever, find certain videos!

Add a Web experience. Seems like a pretty natural extension, and my children do use this archaic thing I have called a computer. And once they’ve been using YouTube autonomously on the iPad, I’d like to enable them to do so on the laptop too.

Allow for age ranges. Again, there’s no 8yo who wants to see the same stuff as a 4yo. With a simple range (2-4, 4-6, etc) setting, the experience would be so much better and tailored to the individual.

I’ve tried to keep the feedback fairly “light” here – things that aren’t monumental shifts in the app, but would fundamentally improve it at every level. I could go on at much more length at how to make a truly great Kids experience, but I’ll save that for another time.

Again, it’s a great start at an awesome experience, but still falls short IMHO. Though there’s one total saving grace I may have forgotten to mention. So thank you, very much, Team YouTube Kids, for this:

Let me start by disclaiming “spoiler free” – I assume you have seen a preview or read at least enough to know the most basic premise of the film. If you truly have no idea what it’s about, well, I make references to content used in the trailers. But seriously, if this does describe you, why are you even click to get this far?

I had a chance to see an early screener of the movie tonight, and felt like doing a little writing about it. In all candor, I’m more negative than positive on it personally, but I think there are a lot of reasons to go see it in theaters (if you are going to see it at all). Gravity might well define the “must see in theater” experience far more than any action movie ever would.

The Good:

Beautiful, amazing, breathtakingly phenomenal cinematography. I honestly feel closer to having an idea of what being in space might be like as a result of the way this was shot.

Solid acting. I felt the characters were genuine, and Clooney/Bullock fit their roles quite well – in fact I’m surprised at any negativity toward the acting on IMDB message boards or other spots.

Suspenseful. Cuaron did a great job keeping the audience on the edge of their seat, and had a solid balance between slowly built, drawn out sequences and other “gotcha” kind of moments.

Dialogue and characters. Great blends of comic and serious, deep and light, etc moments. Very well put together from that end.

The Bad:

Repetitive events. You know that scene in the preview where someone is grabbing on to some space ship part for dear life, and it appears that if they miss it they will be lost in space forever? Yeah, I’ve now seen that moment a few dozen times, to the point where I’d predict a Gravity Drinking Game around it. It’s just too much, and while I get it that that’s a big part of the premise, it becomes nearly comical after the first few times it occurs.

Too many crises. If you’ve read the trivia around Apollo 13, you’ve probably noticed they deliberately removed some of the events that transpired in real life from the film, mostly because they didn’t think the audience would find it believable. In Gravity, I felt that the cascading series of mishaps were just too many from start to finish. I think numerous moments could’ve been reduced or removed completely and the end result would’ve been more gripping. Instead, I kept getting that feeling where my suspension of disbelief was being taxed.

Too many “last possible moment” sequences. To avoid spoiling anything, just imagine a caper movie where the bomb is set to go off, and after a ton of action, the bomb is defused with less than a second to go. Now do it 3 or more (I’ve lost count) times in the same movie. It certainly builds up tension, but also increased the “okay, now they are just messing with me” effect.

The trailer. While I’d say it’s a tossup between Drive and Hancock as to “worst expectation setting for a movie, EVER,” I’d say Gravity’s trailer is on thin ice. If you’ve paid too much attention to it, it’s pretty ridden with spoilers (thankfully I had not seen it more than once before going into the movie). But if you also just saw it once or twice, you’d probably be thinking it’s a non-stop space action flick. It isn’t, and if you are unfamiliar with the director’s other works, you should definitely pay them some attention first. The movie paces really well actually, but it’s a much more drawn-out film than I think a lot of people will expect.

Annoying 3D. I wish I’d seen the IMAX 3D version, maybe that would change my feelings here. As it is, I didn’t, and other than 2-3 “really cool” uses of 3D, it was pretty superfluous to the movie.

Overall, I have negative feelings about Gravity. Per the above, it was wonderfully put together, but ultimately I felt the movie spent more time trying to manipulate me with unnecessary tension. I think the basic premise was suspenseful and dramatic enough, but had several too many “and now we’ll find a way for *another* crazy bad thing to happen” moments for me. I wish that weren’t the case, as I really did want to like it, but I’ve spent the past few hours picking it apart, not sitting around stunned at its beauty

I was thrilled to discover the new TEDTalks app for my iPad this morning, and quickly installed and liked much of the experience. There they are, over 700 amazing Talks to listen to. This is particularly sweet for me as I watch a TEDTalk on my iPad virtually every morning whilst on the bus to the office, currently obtained through the suboptimal process of subscribing to the podcast in iTunes, and syncing to the iPad. And if I may slide for a moment here, I can’t believe in 2010 there’s still anything that has to “sync” via a wire. But I digress, back to TED.

In just a few minutes of use I quickly realized the app was content-rich, but not feature-rich. While the “Inspire Me” feature is extremely well done (it’s all about length of video – this is a key realization most entertainment/content people need to clue in on), I felt it was otherwise a little flat. In fact, it’s not going to be very useful for my personal needs, and I’m concerned that’ll be true for others as well. So in my support of TED, and by the way – I genuinely believe that if all people watched TED Talks the world would actually be a better place – I thought I’d quickly jot out the notes to make it better for users such as myself.

Add searchThe browse works great, but there’s no search. So when I see a tweet from a friend about a given TED Talk, I can’t find it without browsing for it. And, to boot, I need to know the category/tag that applies to the talk to find it. While we’re at it, make search by keyword and author too.

Add alphabetical browsingPer above, at present you need to know how the Talk is categorized to find it. Personally, I’d like to find something just by browsing a list of titles.

Add sharing featuresAt the end of virtually every TEDTalk, I want to share it with someone, whether a peer, my team, a friend or family member, or the entire world on Twitter. Add simple “tweet this” and “like this” and “email a link to this” TEDTalk to every clip. Also, the link should probably share the YouTube or TED.com version of the clip.

Add a history/watched listOnce I’ve watched a few dozen videos, I find it hard to remember if I’ve seen one, or hard to remember the exact title of one if I want to reshare it. A simple history feature is essential. And in the would-be-nice category? Show me “You Watched this on MMDDYY” on the video preview page if I come back to it. Also, add a “mark viewed” feature along the way, in case I’ve watched the Talk on another platform.

Incorporate social featuresSince everyone’s busy “liking” everything else via Facebook these days, would be great to see in a video profile page that friends of mine have liked something.

Add download controlsOnce I begin a download, there appears no way to delete the download, queue for later, or otherwise manage whats going on.

Add more “cool views”Timelines. Maps. Duration. etc.

Integrate with other platformsThere’s the TED site, YouTube, the iPad app, a forthcoming iPhone app, a Boxee app, the iTunes podcast, and I’m sure more to come. Assume I am using more than one method to consume the content, then allow me to integrate from one to the other. In other words, let me favorite something on your site, then see that on my iPad app.

I think the “1.0” version of the app is probably pretty decent for most people. If you have even a few free minutes and an Internet connection and want to get inspired, this app will certainly do the trick. Hopefully these ideas can help inspire team TED to take it just a bit further!

I’m a longtime fan of LiveDigitally but a first time contributor. Jeremy has been kind enough to invite me to write for the blog whenever the mood strikes and today seemed like the perfect day for my inaugural post.

Picking up on previous posts on what makes a great Google TV or Boxee app, I thought I’d jump in with some thoughts of my own on one of my favorite devices, the Roku box.

I got my Roku about four months ago and I love it, I really do. It gives me about 75% of the content I would want on my TV, which was enough to get me to “cut the cord” and cancel my cable subscription. So for the past few months, Roku has been my rocket ship to the TV universe.

I haven’t seen Roku’s latest offerings, but here are some thoughts on what I have seen and heard about their current boxes:

Roku wins universal praise for its ease and setup, but not so much fanfare for its UI; I can’t disagree. The box is dead-simple to set-up and use, which is great. But the UI is uninspired and doesn’t really encourage you to really delve in to what is on offer

Another piece of high praise is reliability, my box hardly ever flakes and we put it through the ringer. It is hard-wired into my router so I can’t vouch for the wifi capability, which appears to be improved in the new boxes launched today

Content: At the outset, Roku was essentially a Netflix box. That was great a year-or-so ago but now, everyone and their brother is a Netflix box. Roku has some nifty content like MLB, Pandora, Amazon and a few others, but they need to continue to expand with more mainstream stuff. Apple has Netflix and just scored ABC and FOX. It isn’t a huge leap forward, but it may be enough to peel off Roku users.

Developer community: Related to the content problem, I know from some developer friends that Roku isn’t the easiest platform to develop on. Obviously this is a problem as competitors, both large and small have strong developer communities. Difficult development platform=difficult to get the choice apps/content.

Some of the pet peeves that are missing from my current box have been addressed by the new ones, the biggest being previously a lack of USB. With my current XR, I don’t have USB to view my own content, which is frustrating. Happily, that has been solved with the XDS

But even as it evolves, Roku is firmly staking ground in the low-end market, which I think is a good move.

The big battle around media-streaming boxes will be around price/performance; Google TV seems to be on the highest end, with estimates that their box will be in the $200-$300 range, Boxee is next at under $200, with Apple TV and Roku coming in at the sub $100 range.

GoogleTV and Boxee promise a more active experience, with more features, web surfing etc., but also with a more complicated remote/UI. AppleTV and Roku look to be more of lean-back experience of just watching content via a simple remote/UI.

My money is on the lean-back experience, which I think is more viable for the short term. A simple box that lets people access most of the content they want will be the gateway drug to media-streaming boxes. Boxee and Google TV look/sound great on paper, but I wonder if they may be too complex too early in the lifecycle of this product segment.

Day one.
Let’s be honest, the first day of any new toy is either “wow this is awesome” or “gosh I’m disappointed”. Most products don’t get well-tested in their first few hours of use, and it’s generally hard to evaluate the real-world practicality of any device. For example, a digital camera will take good pictures, but you might not try it in a fast-action setting; similarly a GPS device will get you to your first destination, but you won’t evaluate how rapidly it finds the signal when you are lost up in Tahoe. My day one was a lot of fun. I didn’t really “do anything” with the iPad, other than try downloading stuff, typing on the keyboard, doodling in one of the (way too many) doodle apps. Good times.

Week one.
Within three days I had sync’ed my email, contacts, and calendar to the device, and all worked quite smoothly. I copied some photos, videos of the kids, some Arrested Development episodes, and some music from my library. I also experienced my first real “use” of iTunes as a sync platform – it’s okay, but has some bizarre shortcomings that I was quite surprised about. I downloaded a few apps (all free ones, didn’t want to buy anything yet and still haven’t bought one yet to this day actually), played with them, kept some, deleted others.

Most of my time in week one was spent using the device in three settings (well, kinda four – read below)

On the busMedia device: Watched videos, wrote a blog post, listened to podcasts

Demo to othersMy fourth scenario was simply showing the iPad to anyone around – lots of inquisitive folks wanting to see it in use. I wish I was getting a commission.

Week two.The second week of use was my true “now how do I feel” week with the iPad. Was it actually better/easier/more convenient than my MacBook? Did I really want to carry this on the bus or other places? Would a murse fit into my lifestyle okay (separate post of iPad cases & sleeves coming)?

The above answers were all “yes”es, and more. The only three uses of my MacBook last week were: watch NHL GameCenter (Go Habs!), sync and backup digital pictures, and charge/sync content to my iPad. For literally everything else I used my iPad in lieu of the MacBook. And not only did I use it, I found myself preferring it for most casual use. But then this weekend got even more interesting.

On two different occasions this weekend (at a movie theater and while touring farms North of San Francisco) we had the iPad handy to look up long lists of content. To be perfectly clear, we opted to carry an iPad rather than print out Web pages. This was a conscious choice, and not in any way for “show off” factor (don’t worry – that was accomplished through plenty of other methods). It was just an easy way to bring content along with us AND have our calendars AND have email history AND have contacts/address book information. Things we obviously could do with smartphones (but generally choose not to), paper (ugh), or laptops. But I’d *never* throw my laptop in the trunk on a day trip – something that just felt natural with the iPad.

It ain’t all kool-aid!
There are certainly flaws with the iPad. In fact, my evernote-based list of likes/dislikes actually has more entries on the dislike list (future blog post). It is, unquestionably, about the least ergonomic device I’ve used (the lap-pad pics from their ads are great, but radically unrealistic). The lack of even simple multi-tasking (mail + calendar anyone?) can be annoying. They could even take a cue out of Android and include a “back” button that spans multiple apps. More on this in a future post. But most importantly…

It’s not a replacement for any computer. Just some.
As much as I believe the iPad has major impact in regards to light/casual/home computing, I don’t think most households could get by with “only” an iPad. The lack of ability to effectively handle one’s digital camera needs is a “killer feature” for having a computer. Further, no businessman could possibly exist on the iPad alone, though it’s an amazing complement to one. I will say that I believe mail on the iPad vastly outshines any other non-computer device, specifically including BlackBerries, and that’s an important piece of ground for Apple to break.

But it is game-changing, and almost definitely not a bread machine.
I like having the iPad around. I like turning it on, using it, then knowing it’s still there. It feels like everything the original PalmPilot put into my hands (though unfortunately not my pockets), only in context of computing and the Internet in 2010. I believe my use will only increase, and intend to start purchasing apps now. It’s probably the most interesting digital accessory one can purchase, and unquestionably dabbles in “computer turf”. I thoroughly enjoy using it, and find that it is helpful (not harmful) to overall productivity. Except, of course, when I play Harbor Master.

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I’ve spent a few weeks months playing with the 23″ LG W53 “SMART monitor”, and in a nutshell, it’s a darn fine unit (full unit acquisition disclosure at the bottom of the review). When I first got it I had already been using a cheapo generic 23″ as an extension for my MacBook, so I really had a good way to do a side-by-side comparison. I found the colors more vivid on the LG, the UI for controlling the monitor was more pleasant to use, and it simply looked a lot nicer on my desk.

As a disclaimer, I am by no means an expert at picture quality – with regards to how it appeared, this is purely a layman’s perspective. My generic display had a bit of a dull-looking finish to colors, whereas bright colors on the LG seemed much more vivid. I did try to set the default settings to appear similar (contrast, tint, etc), and watched a variety of content from movie trailers to simple desktop apps. There was also a “Cinema Mode” which looked good as well. The LG won hands-down, but in order to not sound all gushy about it, it wasn’t exactly a VCR-to-HDTV kind of difference in picture. But if I had to choose, I’d choose the LG.

In contrast to picture quality, I actually do know a thing or two about user interface design (maybe even three), and considering how terrible most TV/monitor menuing systems are, the LG sports a nice touch. Buttons & on-screen controls line up well and make sense. Also, they have a little motion sensor so as your hand approaches the buttons, they light up – this might sound frivolous, but for those of us who like to keep as few extra lights on/visible as possible, it’s definitely a plus.

Lastly, the unit’s finish was much better than most of the other monitors I’ve seen at similar price points. While I’m not personally a huge fit-and-finish person, I do appreciate it looking a tad more professional on my desk. This probably wouldn’t sell me on the unit either way, but if you are narrowing down amongst multiple options, having something look nice sure doesn’t hurt. I actually ended up purchasing a 37″ LCD from LG for my home in large part due to the “high end feel” of their displays. In summary, if you need a new/additional monitor, don’t want to break the bank, and want something that looks and feels good, I’d take a peek at the LG (on Amazon for ~$230).

Disclosure

I did not purchase the 23″ monitor, it was sent to me by LG, and I am permitted to keep it. There were no stipulations, payments, or other parameters on the unit.

Now for the giveaway!

In addition to the unit for my desk, the gang at LG gave me one to give to the readers. I’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to learn a bit more about who reads the blog. If you are interested in winning the free monitor, just fill out my little survey between now and 12/31/09. I’ll pick a winner randomly (note: you must live in the USA to win).

Note: the contest is over, the winner has been picked. Thanks for your participation!

Chrome bags look bitchin’. The question is, do they function as well as they look? I mean, the logo is rad, the seat-belt style buckle is unbelievably cool, and the color choices kick almost everyone elses behinds. (Timbuk2 bags also offers cool color varietals, but they just seem so darn preppy.) Nah, in terms of cool factor, Chrome bags definitely carry the day. But I’m probably getting ahead of myself. Let me backtrack.

This review is about messenger bags, bike messenger bags, and specifically those made by Chrome. While we generally stick to gadgets here at LD, we have reviewed laptop bags in the past. I got my grubby mitts on a Citizen Bike Messenger bag from Chrome Industries, based in foggy San Francisco, CA. Typically a messenger bag is a single shoulder bag that opens horizontally, has one main strap, a large primary compartment, some level of secondary organizational compartments, and then a myriad of different possible accessories. These might include some degree of padding, a laptop compartment, stabilizer straps, a removable primary strap, a grab handle, etc. etc. ad nauseum. (I like bags.)

Working daily in San Francisco, I keep seeing Chrome gear all over the place. Mostly they’re carried by dirt-baggy, scruffy faced ruffians who nimbly dodge through traffic and congregate during lunch on Market and Montgomery (read: bike messengers.) The other primary class of people carrying these bags are poseurs. I mean, serious wannabes who think the logo is cool and want to seem hip with their designer, hip-hugger jeans, their button down shirts with swirly embroidery, their stupid looking goatee with pencil-thin sideburns on their jawline and their aviator sunglasses… yeah, you know who I mean. I don’t want to be that guy. And I’m not sure I can pull off the Citizen, especially off my bike (you know, just walking around.)

Now, to be clear, I am looking at messenger bags from a particular perspective. I do use it on my bike, I commute from San Mateo to San Francisco using my bicycle and the Caltrain. My typical time on the bike varies between 45 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes per day, depending on which route I choose. So I am doing a fair amount of biking with the bag. But I am not a bike messenger. This means a couple things. I am not on my bike 8 hours a day. And I specifically need to carry a few key items, not all kinds of random crap for delivery across the city. I am commuting to work, not routing back and forth across a concrete jungle. I need to carry:

laptop

power charger

sunglasses

a book

a layer

a snack

an iphone charging cord

gum

I’m on the train for part of my commute, so I frequently need to yank out my computer, or get to my book to catch up on some leisure reading. I want the bag to be comfortable, even when heavily weighted. I want it to be weather proof, I get caught by rain frequently, especially in the Winter time. I’d like some organization options, multiple pockets and compartments. Ideally I’d like a padded laptop sleeve, so that I can pop out the computer without having to scrabble past all the other junk in my bag. And I want it to look dope. Yeah, I’m vain. I deal with it, and so should you.

Before I ever picked one up, I went to the streets and asked some regular folks sporting Chrome what they thought. One person complained that though he was really excited at first, he didn’t like the fact that it was just a big sack. One big hole to drop stuff into, with little or no organizational options. This is one of my concerns too. On the one hand, I like simplicity. The Citizen is straightforward – it’s a bag, it holds stuff. There are a few pockets. One zippered, one non-zippered, and a couple of pen / pencil sleeves.

This is sufficient for most of the small items, and offers a decent level of organization. My biggest gripe, organizationally speaking, is really the lack of a laptop sleeve and the lack of padding. It would be great to be able to pull out the laptop and leave the rest of my gear undisturbed. As it is, I use a neoprene sleeve that I bought aftermarket in order to put some padding around my way-too-expensive mac. This works fine, but the sleeve would be a nice built-in feature.

It’s important to note here that the Citizen is not intended to be, and was not designed to be a laptop bag. It’s a messenger bag, for carrying stuff around on a bike. I am choosing to use a messenger bag as a laptop bag. If I use a screwdriver to drive a nail, I might succeed in pounding the sucker in, but I also might get some bent nails. That being said, more and more people are bike commuting all the time – lord knows it’s hard to get a seat on the Caltrain for the 8:15AM train. So I think I’m not the only person who’d benefit from a couple of design alterations. And Chrome, btw, does offer some laptop-oriented bags. But none of them are quite like the classic “messenger-style” bags, and none of their messenger bags really hit the mark for the computer commuter.

Another oddity to me is the stabilizer strap. It seems to me like it ought to run opposite of the primary strap. In other words, if I wear the bag on my left shoulder, then the stabilizer strap should logically come up my right side, no? Well, Chrome disagrees, and their stabilizer runs along the same side as the primary strap, and runs under armpit (see left.) I found this to be pretty ineffective – the bag rolls on me just as much with this as without it.

There are a couple of things I would change about this bag, to make it the perfect bag for me. Let me reiterate – these are not necessarily shortcomings in the bag itself (at least not all of them); rather, these are things that would improve the bag for my purposes:

Padded laptop sleeve (I’ve covered this)

Waterproof zipper with storm-sleeve to access the laptop sleeve – it would be awesome to be able to yank out the laptop without needing to unbuckle two clips and rip apart massive velcro.

Better stabilizer strap – I think it ought to come from the other side of the bag

The lack of a zipper will stop me from using this bag when I travel. It’s just too difficult to pull things out of the bag when it’s stuffed under the seat in front of me when I’m riding coach in an airplane. All that velcro, ugh. But I can also understand not wanting to compromise the waterproof integrity of the bag. And for riding into work everyday, I am willing to put up with the shortcomings because there a lot of things I really like. I’ll tell you what I think makes this bag a big winner:

The buckle – it’s darn near iconic in San Francisco, and it’s just like a seatbelt in a car. That’s rad.

The materials – ballistic nylon and truck tarpaulin are badass, durable and waterproof

The anatomical, padded shoulder strap – even heavily loaded this is a comfortable bag to ride with, even without any padding to speak of

Shoulder strap again, specifically, the way it holds the bag upright – with a lot of other messenger bags I’ve used (including an Osprey and a Jandd bag) there is a constant tendency for the bag to swing sideways. The shoulder strap on the Chrome messengers actually hold the bag more or less vertically, and the shape itself (with a little help from gravity) actually hold it in place. It was this design element that first caught my eye.

The one-handed tightener and loosener on the chest strap

The Citizen from Chrome is an outstanding messenger bag with an unusual and innovative design, outstanding materials, the sweetest logo on the market, a wickedly cool (unbreakable?) buckle, and awesome color options. There are some things it does really well, and others that could stand improvement. But on the whole I think the bag will serve well enough for my biking commuter-geek purposes, and it’s clearly outstanding for the purpose for which it was originally intended – to be a bike messenger bag that will last for years of hard abuse. When I’m riding my bike, I’m stoked to have this bag cause it’s comfortable, functional, and cool-looking. When I’m not on my bike and I carry this bag, I feel like a poseur, a big lame-o that’s trying too hard to look cool.

If I were forced to give this bag a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d have to split things up a bit. For the purposes of a computer-commuter bag, I’d give it a 7. As a travel bag it’s a 5. And as a bike messenger bag this one is a 10. If I change career paths and start delivering packages via bicycle, I won’t carry anything else. (I’d be laughed at, scoffed and mocked by the other guys if I did anyway.)

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eStarling makes several WiFi connected digital photo frames, and I’ve been playing with their Impact V for a bit. I’m impressed.

From the moment you open the box, eStarling does a pretty good job holding your hand and making use of the frame pretty simple. You have all the usual options for displaying pictures that past digital frames have lead us to expect, including memory card slots that accommodate a couple different card types (SD, MS, MMC.) But what’s way more interesting to me is the wireless and social mechanisms for displaying pictures.

When you pull the device out of the box, a greeting card immediately invites you to plug in the frame and connect it to your wifi connection (beware: this frame is much cooler if you have a wifi network.) Once you’re connected, the frame prompts you to visit their website and activate your account. Once you do you will get an email address dedicated to your frame, and you (or your friends and family) can email pictures to your frame. You can also log into your account on their website to upload pictures from your computer to your eStarling account – these will then appear on your frame (it took my pictures about 15 minutes to show up.) One of the neatest features is the social component – you can link your frame to a variety of social websites and services, including Facebook, Flickr, Phtobucket, Picassa, Twitter (not sure about this one), YouTube and more. In addition to these services, you can also subscribe to RSS feeds – popular ones like National Geographic or even a user-designated feed. You can also post small videos to play on your frame if you so choose.

I did have some issues with some of the social services. For instance, I linked my Flickr account to my eStarling frame. It was a pretty simple, one-click connection which presumably links up eStarling’s service with Flickrs API. Two issues presented themselves though:

1. After clicking through the Flickr to link up the accounts, instead of a “Success, awesome job, well done!” screen, I was presented with a page full of gibberish. There was no message to tell me whether I had successfully linked the account. I didn’t know for sure until photos started appearing on the frame.

2. When those photos did appear, they weren’t mine. They were photos of friends mine, people to whom I am linked on Flickr. But none of my own photos made it into the frame. Now, I like my friends and all, but I don’t need their photos on my frame. Whether it’s going to sit in my home, or in my parent’s home, I want my own pictures on my frame.

Ultimately I was forced to use the “custom RSS” feature and take my Flickr account’s own RSS feed and manually link that with my frame. Even after doing that, only my most recent set (about 20 pictures or so) showed up on the frame. I don’t really know how to pull specific sets or additional photos from Flickr into the frame.

The frame has an eight inch display (800×600 pixels) and the clarity is pretty darn sharp. (Any blurring in the images in this post is due to the photographer, not the frame.) It’s a touch screen interface, and there are light-up touch screen buttons along the right side. You must use the touch screen in order to connect to the wireless network, but almost everything else can be accomplished through eStarling’s web portal. The touch buttons let you skip through photos, or jump back to menus to select specifc photos, or access settings for the frame. But I found the touch buttons a little finicky to use – fortunately the included remote also allows you to control action on the frame.

Lastly, there’s packaging. In the unboxing I discovered very little wasteful or non-recyclable material. There was one small piece of closed-cell foam for padding, and a foam sleeve for the frame. Everything else was cardboard, including the majority of the boxe’s padding. 5 gold stars for being conscious of the environment.

Overall I was impressed with the frame. The picture clarity, the simple setup, and the social components were all fantastic. I love that it’s wifi, and I dig the fact that I can update the photos remotely, up to and including if the frame is in another state (or country.) However, I do think the web interface and tools need a little refinement. They are feature-rich but lacking in the fine points of usability. Some improvements could include better feedback to user actions (letting you know if you succeeded in linking an account), and better fine-tuning of services (to include / exclude friends’ photos, etc.) They don’t need more options, they just need to refine and improve the ones they’ve got.

Daniel Lim at Slashgear also wrote a nice review of this frame. If I were forced to give this frame a numeric rating, something which I am loathe to do, I would give it an 8 out of 10. They did a good job. I just hope they keep improving the little sucker, especially the web interface and options.

I’ve been thinking about a bluetooth headset for a long time. Since I got my iPhone, I’ve almost exclusively used the included iPod headphones / speakerphone to talk with other people. But it tangles often and it’s starting to get worn out – the rubber on the earpieces has rubbed off completely. 🙁 That combined with the California headset law (and the joy of playing with new toys) convinced me to try to go blue. Eric Benderoff’s review of several top bluetooth headsets gave me a little background, and the pure sex appeal of the Jawbone II gave me a starting place.

There are a lot of different possible categories from which to assess a gadget like this: form factor, simplicity of use, pairing ability, sound quality, battery life, durability, cost… I don’t often write really analytical reviews which numerically asses and assign rankings to devices, but this time I plan to for the sake time and conveneience. Elsewise this review will ramble, extensively. Long.

I will rank each of the above categories with a numeric ranking between 1 and 10 (naturally) and then average out the scores. By doing this I am essentially saying 1.) that each of the chosen categories have equal weighting, and 2.) that other possible categories (say, color) do not factor into my assessment. Those are both true things, so take my review with the appropriate grains of sodium hydrochloride.

Pairing Ability: 7 (turn it on, and turn on bluetooth on your phone – they just seem to find each other)

Sound Quality: 6 (I can hear people OK. When I need to turn the volume up high, it seems to get a little fuzzy. People can hear me OK. Not great, but OK. This might be due to poor pairing, or simply the nature of the device. )

Battery Life: 6 (battery life seems to be about what you’d expect, or just a hair better. I seem to get about 2-3 hours of active talk time. If it sits idle on a full charge for a couple days, I can still use it. If it sits idle after a full charge for 5 or 6 days, not so good. )

Durability: 4 (the device body seems to be fairly compact and well made, I expect it will last as well as anything else out there. The ear pieces are another issue. As you’ll see in the pictures below, one of my stems broke. Jawbone is kind enough to package multiple stems [for differently sized and shaped heads / ears] so I had a backup, even though it’s a suboptimal size. I did NOT mishandle nor manhandle the ear piece – just rotated it as it’s designed to be rotated, and the little sucker just snapped. Boy was I irritated. )

Cost: 4 (this is a pricey little sucker. I’ve seen it at the T-Mobile store for as little as $99, and at a Verizon store for $129. If you shop around you’ll find it for somewhere over $100.

If we assume that each of the above categories carrie an equal weighting, then the score on the Jawbone II bluetooth headset comes out to 6.29 (10+7+7+6+6+4+4=6.2857147)

I like this device’s style and simplicity. It’s elegant, pretty, fairly easy to use, and the it sounds good. Not “oh my god holy crap” amazing, but it sounds good. The cost of the unit, and the fact that the stem broke in the manner it did are both very offputting for me though, and they are the biggest limiting factors in my estimation. That particular pair of issues (high cost with questionable durability) is expecially disagreeable. I’ll be interested to see if/how the company responds to my customer service request. If they do, I will update this post.

Forced to give a numeric rating between 1 and 10, this device averaged out to a 6.29.

Note: this is a guest-written review from Gitamba Saila-Ngita, I felt I didn’t spend enough time using MP3 players myself (not to mention any athletic activities whatsoever) to do an adequate review of the product.

These days the iPod™ is ubiquitous, even to the extent that the term “iPod” has become synonymous with MP3 Player but, it might not be the only game in town! There are other options–especially when you want to take your music to… the extreme!

I recently had the opportunity to check out Freestyle Audio’s SoundWave. Their slogan, “Take Your Music There”, which is coupled with lifestyle images of the outdoors, and instantly got me wondering whether this little 2″x3″ device could withstand the wear and tear of mother nature. The SoundWave comes with everything you need to get started right out of the box; such as waterproof headphones, a replacement belt clip, USB™ transfer cable, arm band, and my personal favorite, 50 free music downloads from the eMusic service (Apple please take note).

The device also comes with a slew of pre-installed tunes which allows you to take it for a spin as soon as you’re ready. It can hold 2GB of music via internal storage (no SD slots to expand it), and packs a substantial 18 hour playback time.

Getting started was fairly quick and rather painless. After I set up my eMusic account, I uploaded some music onto the device before taking it out for a swim. One major difference between SoundWave and the iPod is that the SoundWave has no official software interface to your computer. This may not be a “make or break” deal for all MP3 Player users, but whether it be iTunes or Windows Media Player, it is definitely a convenience to have something that plays well with not only your music but your gadgets too.

Now before I go further, I’m always rather skeptical of any waterproofed electronic, ESPECIALLY something like an MP3 player. Usually the “waterproofing” is inadequate, or you sacrifice size to put your device into something as massive as an Otterbox. In some cases you could be like our friend David Spieser who had his iPod™ Shuffle “Waterproofed” for a pretty penny.

Once in the water, things got kind of dicey. The SoundWave features six buttons, each with multiple functions that are displayed on simple and very tiny digital screen. I found the buttons very difficult to press. This may be partly due to the waterproofing, but it definitely made skipping through songs mid-swim a challenge. There is also a 5 second fade out when you skip, so trying to get to that next song to pump up your work out gets really annoying very quickly. I recommend setting up a play list, or enabling the shuffle function to make your work out as fluid as possible (On a side note, for some reason even with correct IDV3 tag encoding all my songs, no matter where I put them, displayed as gibberish – I am still trying to figure out why that happened). I swam for about an hour and also submerged the device up to its maximum depth of 10 feet.

To my surprise, the device showed absolutely no signs of taking on water. The waterproof earphones held up great too, although I wish they were slightly more comfortable (it uses a standard headphone jack so I imagine you could find something waterproof that suits you). The sound quality both under water and above is not bad. The little guy also supports the WOW audio codec and multiple types of EQ to help tailor the experience to your liking.

All around, the Free Style Audio’s SoundWave can take the beating you dish out while getting your sweat(or swim!) on. I recommend this to people who’ve been looking to bring a tough and rugged portable music player with them on active outings, where you won’t need to worry if it can take on a variety of physical and active elements.

A while back, when I first saw Steve Jobs announce the new version of the iPod shuffle, with integrated clip and super-small form factor, I was excited. I exercise a lot, mostly running, biking and swimming. Music (or “books on tape”) makes the whole experience a lot more tolerable, and the iPod shuffle with its light weight and built-in clip is a perfect companion.

For running and biking, the shuffle is brilliant, and I use it every day. Every day. However, I’ve been swimming a lot more lately, and most electronics don’t do well in water, chlorinated or otherwise. And I’ll tell you something else. Swimming laps is boring. Really boring. I find it slow, tedious, dull, and insipid. I like the feeling of endorphin release, and the positive benefits of the exercise, but man swimming laps is uninspiring.

Swimman.com is a service that will waterproof the iPod shuffle. You can buy the iPod through them, or purchase it directly and send it to them. The waterproofing treatment takes about one week, and then you’re ready to go. They also sell waterproof headphones (which I bought) to use while swimming.

Here are the basics:

They waterproof the shuffle

The On/Off slider and the Shuffle/Continuous play slider are both locked in place

The buttons become much stiffer

Otherwise it works the same as before. If you want to shuffle your music you can set your playlist in iTunes to shuffle. Once you get your device, you’ll want to clip your headphones and the shuffle to the headband, strap the excess cord under the headband, and then you’re ready to swim.

Swimman offers a number of packages to choose from, including just the shuffle itself, the headphones and the shuffle as a combo package, etc. I went with package E, along with a pair of swimman headphones. The waterproofing treatment is $100 plus $15 for shipping and handling. The headphones are another $100. And the 2GB shuffle is about $70. So all told I’m down almost $300 for the luxury of waterproof tunes while lap swimming.

I’ve now used the waterproofed shuffle a total of 8 times. I am stoked. I switch back and forth between music and books on tape (nothing gets you pumped up like Joe Mantegna reading the Godfather.) But I find that I can now swim longer and with less impatience. Here are some pics of the shuffle in situ – (it looks just like any other):

On the whole I think this is awesome. It ain’t cheap, so if you’re short of cash you might need to look at cheaper options. But all of those options are considerably bulkier, heavier, and/or less convenient than the Swimman waterproofing treatment for the shuffle.

If I were forced to give the Swimman waterproofing system a numeric rating between 1 and 10, I’d give it an 8. It would probably be a 9 or 10 if the price wasn’t so dang high.

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About

Jeremy Toeman is VP Products for CNET. He has over 15 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include Viggle, Dijit Media, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents nothing but his personal opinion and outlook on things.